Motor vehicle fuel tank

Abstract

A liquid fuel tank assembly which has upper and lower body shells connected together along continuous bent flanges, and has a recessed and shielded fill neck and cap locking cam integral with the upper body shell and an extruded sump portion integral with the lower body shell.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or priviledge is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
       1. In a motor truck having a longitudinally extending side frame member supporting a motor truck cab, a pair of longitudinally spaced apart fuel tank support arm brackets mounted to the frame member and extending laterally outwardly therefrom below the cab, and a liquid fuel tank mounted to the support arm brackets in overhanging relation with the frame member, and comprising: upper and lower tank body shells seam connected together along continuous external projecting flanges;   the lower tank shell having a depending sump portion means extruded in a horizontal bottom wall and nesting between the brackets for preventing fore-and-aft shifting of the tank;   
     
     
       the upper tank shell having an indented flat portion notching an outboard edge formed by the juncture between a horizontal top wall and an outboard vertical side wall and extending into said top and outboard side walls and forming two opposed shoulders of an alcove; a fuel filler neck extruded in the flat portion between the shoulders and forming an opening to the tank;   a cap locking cam formed on the extruded end of the tube; and   a cap mounted over the extruded end of the neck and detachably secured thereto by the cam and shieldably recessed in the alcove.   
     
     
       2. In a motor truck side frame member mounted liquid fuel tank, according to claim 1, wherein the tank is connected to the brackets by a pair of longitudinally spaced apart straps passing over the upper tank shell and the downwardly over the outboard side wall, and wherein the alcove is located centrally between the straps. 
     
     
       3. In a motor truck side frame member mounted liquid fuel tank according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the upper and lower tank body shells are substantially trapezoidal in shape with the projecting flanges extending on an oblique plane intersecting with two parallel horizontal planes respectively passing through the top and bottom walls, and wherein the seam connected flanges have a predetermined bend mode extending around the vertical walls of the tank and providing a greater resistance to leakage and collapse of the tank along the seam connection. 
     
     
       4. In a motor truck side frame member mounted liquid fuel tank according to claim 3, wherein, the brackets are crooked upwardly and outwardly and the predetermined bend extending along the outboard side wall is adjacent to the crooked brackets and is bent upwardly and outwardly wedgingly engaging in the crooks of the brackets. 
     
     
       5. In a motor truck side frame member mounted liquid fuel tank according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined bend extending along the remaining vertical walls is bent downwardly and outwardly. 
     
     
       6. In a motor truck side frame member mounted liquid fuel tank according to claim 5, wherein the seam connected flanges are bent at a substantially thirty degree angle with respect to the oblique plane.